Disclaimer: Nope, still not owning it. Gee, thanks for reminding me!

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Author's Notes: I am now moving post days to Friday. Tuesdays are now too complicated with the musical (which I made!) and the show choir show coming up. The parts of the musical were posted and I'm in the chorus (it's all I auditioned for). Oh well, I get to tap a bit I think.

Districts were last weekend and I dropped even more time in the 200 free. Yay! All I have left this season is the senior meet in two weeks. On the bus ride to the meet, we were stuck in traffic due to a car accident. The bus didn't move for a whole hour on the road and some of the girls really had to go to the bathroom. The braver ones actually went in bags and threw them out the window. Gross, I know. One of the bags actually hit a car and burst open. I thought I was going to choke, I was laughing so much.

Our orchestra concert was last night. The one good song we played was the Barber of Seville which sounded cool. Our OMEA contest is tomorrow. Yay!

My little brother is proud that he got honor roll. I usually get really good grades and now we are scheduling classes for next year. I'm planning on taking some AP classes, especially in math and science.

Who reads this stuff on the top anyways? If you actually do, congrats! You win a cookie! ( :

Well then, enough of my blabbering.

Last Time: Harry is left in the care of Mrs. Figg as Dudley and his friends celebrate his birthday. A new family moved in the neighborhood as well.

Onto the Story…!

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Chapter Nine: Piers

According to Dudley, the new family in the neighborhood was all of that and a bag a chips! With a widescreen television, an expresso machine, and karaoke game, who wouldn't be intrigued?

"-and their pet dog, Ruffles, knows tricks!" Dudley shared at the dinner table excitingly. "I wonder if he can talk…?"

"Maybe it can, Duddley-kins," Aunt Petunia said as she continued cutting her meat with a knife.

"Dogs don't know how to talk," Harry told his cousin in a matter-of-fact sort of voice.

"Who asked you?" Dudley interjected. He tried kicking Harry from under the table, but his legs are too short and squat. "I should know after all, I hang out at the Polkiss' all the time…."

Dudley then spent the rest of dinner telling everyone else about the pool in their backyard and how he is going to go swimming in it tomorrow. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia only nodded their heads at every pause, clearly not paying much attention to their son. Harry tried to ignore Dudley as well but he found it hard to do. He's never gone swimming before….

'What am I thinking?' Harry asked himself angrily. 'This is Dudley! He's probably making it up!' Harry then took out his frustration by stabbing his meat venomously, causing Aunt Petunia to call out, "don't play with your food, boy!"

So he sat the rest of dinner with a stoic expression hiding his bubbling hatred towards his cousin. Dudley was the only one not oblivious to Harry's inner turmoil. He smiled triumphantly to himself before starting up another story about how their car seats are heated.

Then again Dudley is the class idiot who thinks two pus two was twenty-two; who knew if anything coming out of his mouth was correct.

But was true was that Dudley did go over to their house everyday. Apparently, there were two boys; Piers, a boy their age, and his older brother Roger. Dudley sure didn't have a lot to say about Roger.

And so the blazing days of summer drug on and on, each day hotter than the previous. Harry was thankful Dudley was actually out of the house everyday; he could now stay inside, his cupboard providing the cool shade from the sticky humid outside.

On the limited number of days where the temperature cooled off, Harry would take long leisure walks around Little Whinging. His favorite time to walk was when a storm front was coming. Just the humid yet cool and hectic breeze would tell him so. Only then, he'd have to head home to avoid the thunder and lightning disappointingly. Lightning was fascinating to him for some reason.

But on one of his days out, he walked by the house where a certain new family was still getting accustomed. A moving van was still parked outside and the garage door was open to reveal a mountain of boxes.

In Harry's opinion, the house looked the exact same as all the rest; brown-bricked and boring beyond belief. The new owners must have thought along the same lines as a red telephone booth was perched out on the grass on the front lawn. Harry counted no less than three little garden gnomes in the flowerbeds and five flamingos. Walking a little to the side to see the back yard, he was surprised to actually see a pool. Aunt Petunia would have been livid.

Before Harry headed back to number four, he watched as two boys, one large and the other rather small, run out through the front door.

"Stop it, Roger!" The younger one screamed girlishly as the larger of the two, Roger, sprayed him wet with his huge water gun.

"Only if you say it," The elder boy demanded his super-soaker shooting water everywhere. "Say it!"

"No!"

"Fine," Roger sighed, "have it your way…." He cornered the younger boy and sprayed him extra hard, laughing menacingly at the same time.

"Okay! Okay! I'll say it," the younger boy surrendered. He took a moment to catch his breath before muttering, "I scream like a girl."

"And act like one," Roger added, refilling his gun with water. He aimed again, but before he could spray, a voice came from inside the house.

"Piers! Roger! Can't you two get along for once! Come in, it's time for dinner. We're having chili a la mode tonight!" The two boys stopped what they were doing and obeyed. Peace and quiet was once again restored the moment the boys entered the house and shut the door close.

Harry left the scene with much to think about; a pool, a telephone booth, and a squirt gun. Dudley didn't quiet exaggerate his tale, the Polkiss' sure were all that. He just wasn't sure about the chip part….

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It wasn't until a couple nights later when anything exciting happened on Privet Drive. Harry was up early as usual and having a small bowl of cereal at the kitchen table. Aunt Petunia was the only one with him as she worked around the kitchen, washing this and wiping that. She had turned on the small T.V. and tuned it to the local news like she does every morning.

"…and stargazers of all ages aren't going to want to miss this," said the pretty female reporter at her desk. "Tonight around ten p.m. to midnight, all of England will have perfect view of a total lunar eclipse. The last one until the year 1989…"

"Wow," Harry breathed. This stuff just intrigued him beyond belief. "Aunt Petunia? Do you think we could… you know… go see it?"

Aunt Petunia thought for a moment. Harry was sure she was thinking of an excuse, a surprise schedule to the dentist or something like that. Instead, Harry was surprised when she said, "I don't see why not."

Harry smiled briefly before finishing his cereal, his heart lighter than before. It was then Uncle Vernon then entered the kitchen. He gave his wife a peck on the cheek and sat with Harry at the table, the daily newspaper tucked under his arm.

"…a lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth is directly in between the sun and the moon…" a male news correspondent was sharing. "It takes place not during a full moon, but during a new moon. If conditions are clear tonight, and if we're lucky, we may be able to see a reddish tinge to the moon."

"Full moons, new moons, red moons," Uncle Vernon repeated. "What are you watching, dear? Please don't say it's some new horoscope channel or something. Maybe that's why the cable bill has been high lately."

"It's just the news, Vernon," Aunt Petunia told her husband. She carried two hot mugs of coffee over to the table. "There's some eclipse going on tonight or something like that."

"And these hoodlums from foreign places are coming into England to see it?" Uncle Vernon asked, pointing at the traveling astronomer who as now being interviewed. "I thought you can't look at an eclipse, it'll burn your retinas."

"That's with a solar eclipse," Aunt Petunia said. "Tonight's a lunar one."

"Big deal," Uncle Vernon complained. "Who would want to get up at midnight to look at the moon anyways? Some of us more civilized people get their eight hours sleep to get up and work. I wonder what these hoodlum's salaries look like."

"You mean we're not going to go see it?" Harry finally spoke. He looked up at Aunt Petunia hopefully, but she wouldn't return it.

"And what made you think we were?" Uncle Vernon asked in a low voice. He leaned across the table at his nephew, only to intimidate him even more.

"Well… I-I… um," Harry was at a lost for words. He was sure his uncle would be mad at him for thinking he'd belive that his wife said they could.

Uncle Vernon sat back into his chair, his signature smirk plastered on his face. "I thought so."

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And that was the reason why Harry snuck out of the house that night. He left through the back porch door and headed away from the house. He certainly didn't want to be caught standing in the middle of Aunt Petunia's flower beds.

The park was obviously the best place to go. It was a few blocks down from Privet Drive. The lacking number of lights around it made the night sky ever so clearer. What a perfect night to have a total lunar eclipse!

Harry wasn't the only one to watch the moon in awe. He was surprised at the number of families that came to find a clear spot to gaze up at the stars. One person even brought a microscope. Everyone was staring upwards, their fingers pointed at one significant looking object in the sky.

It was then Harry too turned his attention to the night's main attraction. What he saw was not only magnificent, but beautiful in its on way and sense. The moon looked red and shaded. It was so dark, it almost wasn't visible with the surrounding black space around it. The stars also seemed brighter as they illuminated the sky like thousands of tiny shards of diamonds.

Harry stood there in awe for a good five minutes. His eyes were glued onto that red moon, that beautiful red moon. He stopped staring when an older gentlemen accident bumped into him.

"Oh, I'm sorry dear boy," the man apologized before heading over to where a picnic blanket was laid out, his family lounging on it.

With all of these content families around him, Harry felt rather out of place. It was times like these where he harshly remembered that he had no family (he wasn't counting the Dursleys here). He had no one to share this event with. No hand to hold his had when he walked to school, nobody to go to in case of a nightmare, no one to wish him a happy birthday….

Harry did what he did best during these times at retreated back into his shell. He walked to the other side of the park where the playground was. When a heavy sigh, he sat down on one of the empty swings, his legs still to short to reach the gravel.

'I should have brought Snuffles with me,' Harry thought to himself. 'at least I have him.' He just wanted to know about the one who gave him Snuffles. That man was in his dreams quite a bit, he often dreamed of his parents as well. What really bothered him was that he'd forget their smiling faces the moment he woke up. All he could remember for the rest of the day was feeling an indescribable amount happiness. It was happiest he's ever felt in his life.

'They're out there somewhere,' Harry told himself tensely, 'for all I know, they could be outside looking at the moon too.' Harry returned his gaze to the red moon above his head. I sure did look closer to Earth than normal.

'I wonder if they are thinking of me,' Harry thought as his wide eyes held on to the image of the magnificent moon. 'Are they thinking of me like I'm thinking about them?'

And maybe they were. Harry was never to know. He just knew that there was someone far away that cared for him. One day, they will find him and bring him out of his cupboard.

"Someday," Harry said under his breath as he began to pump his legs back and forth to gain altitude. Swinging had a way to clear his head, and he sure did need it now as it felt heavy with emotion and tension.

It took some time, but soon Harry was swinging as high as he could. He tilted his head back and watched the moon as he kept swinging. It was amusing to watch the large orb zoom forwards and back as he swung. It did make him feel slightly nauseous though.

As he swung higher and higher on the swing, the moon appeared closer and bigger. So close, Harry was sure he could grasp it if he wanted to, which is what he tried to do.

With his arm outstretched in front of him, Harry reached out to try to grab the red moon. It was so close to him, he swore he could wrap his fingers around it. If only he were a little taller…almost there….

"What are you doing?"

Harry's jumped all the sudden and almost fell out of the high swing, startled. He looked around to see who had spoken.

"Over here," the voice said again. Harry skidded off the swing set and turned around. Behind him was the new boy that just moved in. Piers was his name, Harry was sure of it.

"What were you doing?" He asked again curiously. He had mousy brown and a long face.

"oh…I was just…um," Harry stuttered out. This was embarrassing. "I was just…tryingtoreachthemoon."

"The moon?" Piers asked him. He looked up at the reddish circle in the sky. "I don't know, it looks really far away."

"It isn't too far when you're on the swing."

"No, it's probably not," he said philosophically as he sat down on the empty swing. He then turned to Harry, eyeing him wearily. "I don't think we've met, my name's Piers. I'm new around here."

"I'm Harry, Dudley's cousin." Harry told him. "I'm sure you've met Dudley."

Piers only looked confused upon the name, "whose Dudley?"

"Oh, You know," Harry tried to describe his cousin. "He's gone to your house everyday this past week." But Piers still look lost. Harry mirrored his cousin's bulk by gesturing a round, pot belly and a piggish face. That's when Piers finally caught on.

"Oh, him! With the blonde hair?" Harry nodded. "Yeah, he's over at our house all the time."

"Well, that's my cousin." Piers cringed at the thought of being related to Dudley.

"Well, he's probably no better than Roger…my older brother." He informed Harry. "Do you know him?"

"No, but I've seen him," Harry said. "He was spraying you with his water gun."

Piers sighed slightly. "He never leaves me alone. He pushes me, shoves me, and talked to me like I'm a baby."

"Well, he sounds just like Dudley," Harry said, "except for the baby part. Dudley and I are the same age. He always picks on me at home. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon don't stop him though."

"Do you live with them?" Piers asked, turning his head towards Harry. The bespectacled boy looked down at the ground.

"Yeah, ever since my parents died," he replied gloomily. "That was a long time ago." A brief silence worked its way in between the two boys.

"You don't like them, do you?" Piers asked. "You're family, I mean. Dudley doesn't sound nice. Neither does your Aunt and Uncle."

"Not really," Harry answered honestly. "But it's not all that bad. It could be worse." That was a lie. Harry didn't know how his life could possibly be any worse.

Piers sighed. "I don't think it could get any worse with Roger." Harry had an idea.

"Maybe if we faced them, or ignored them, they'd leave us alone."

"You think so?"

"I really don't know," Harry said. "I've never tried it before." That was true. Dudley was too large and beefy for Harry to try anything.

"Then we should try it one day," Piers agreed, "just not today. Roger is still twice as big as me."

"Piers! Let's head home!" A woman called from the clearing on the opposite side of the park.

"That's my mum," Piers told Harry, "she really didn't want to come tonight. Me and dad convinced her. We had to practically drag her out by her feet."

Harry smiled at the thought, she sounded just like Aunt Petunia. "Well…bye."

"Yeah," Piers said, "see you later." He ran off to join up with his parents and brother. Harry sat motionless on the swing for a little longer, gazing up at the moon, before rising to head home.

That night he dreamed of himself once again reaching for the moon. Alone, he wasn't nearly as tall to achieve this task, but in this dream he was sitting upon a man's shoulders.

"Just keep reaching for it, Harry," the handsome dark-haired man told him. "You'll get there one day. Just don't be afraid, I'll be here to catch you if you fall..."

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The next day, Harry met up with Piers at the park again. Thankfully, the humidity was low and the blazing sun partially covered by clouds.

"So, what do you want to do?" Piers asked him. The two of them were sitting on the curb of the road next to the park, bored. "Why don't we build a sandcastle?" He pointed to the sand box not to far away.

"Nah," Harry answered flatly. He vividly remembered what Dudley did to his head in that sandbox not so long ago. The two boys sat thinking for a little longer.

"I know," Piers exclaimed, "I have some chalk at home. We can draw on my driveway."

"That sounds fun," Harry replied. He did love drawing by the way.

Piers retrieved a small bucket of chalk from inside his still open and box-filled garage. There were so many colors that Harry didn't know which one to start with.

"I like drawing animals, what about you?" Piers asked him as he found a big, unused spot on the driveway and grabbed a red stick of chalk.

"I do too," Harry told him. "I want to work at the zoo when I grow up. But I also want to fly planes."

"Why don't you fly the planes to transport the animals zoo from zoo then?"

"I've never thought of that." Harry drew a big air plane on the driveway with a blue piece of chalk. He then added in different animals in each of the windows and himself in the front. He gave himself a pilot's hat to match.

"What about you?" Harry asked Piers. "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

Piers put down his chalk which he was busy drawing a hopscotch diagram with. "I don't know. I've always wanted to be a movie star, but I also like-" there was a rustling in the bushes beside them.

"What is it?" Harry asked, slightly scared. Piers sat still for a moment, his ears trying to pick up on something. "It's probably just a cat. There's this lady down the street with loads of them." Harry smiled.

"That's Mrs. Figg," Harry told him. "She's really nice." The two of them continued their artwork on the sidewalk, chatting about good movies they've seen and about what types of animals they'd like to see in a zoo.

"-be awesome if they had a petting zoo. The zoo where we used to live had one. There were all these sheep and-" the rustling came back as Harry and Piers turned towards the bushes, startled.

"Do you see anything?" Piers asked, slowly getting back on his feet. This was starting to freak him out.

"I think I do," Harry said, gazing deeply through the branches. He could have sworn he saw a pair of eyes staring at him. He had had this uneasy feeling that caused the hairs of the back of his next to prick up. With a burst of courage, he too rose to his feet but approached the bushes cautiously. As he stepped closer, the bushes rustled again and out came a certain pudgy baby whale.

Harry sighed greatly, it was only Dudley. "What were you doing?" he askdd his cousin.

Dudley brushed off excess leaves and trigs from his clothes and hair. "Nothing; I wasn't doing anything," he fibbed.

"Hey," Piers exclaimed, eyeing Dudley's vast stomach , "I know you." The miniature sumo looked up, surprised. "You're the one who keeps peeking through our windows at us." Dudley blushed slightly.

"I don't know what you're-"

"No, I'm sure of it. You're the kid who tried sneaking into our pool the other day." Dudley's face was now beat red. Harry soon realized that Dudley wasn't hanging out with the Polkiss' all day, he was spying on them.

An awkward silence filled the surrounding area. Dudley couldn't think of anything to say to that, he was just caught red-handed. Harry was still trying to piece things together while Piers was the first to speak.

"You want to draw with us?" He asked. Dudley looks at him weirdly.

"Well, would you look at this?" Came a voice. All three of the kids' heads turned around. Roger, Piers' older brother, was standing before them with a garden hose in hand.

"Mum sent me out to water the flowers, but look at what I found!" he took a deep breath through his nose as his sniffing out a certain scent. "Fresh meat!"

Roger pointed the hose equipped with its nozzle at the three of them. Dudley squealed like a pig and made an effort to waddle away, his hands covering his large behind.

"Uh oh, Tubby's getting away!" He aimed for Dudley and sprayed him harshly with the hose. Dudley was still squealing even after he got out of the line of fire. Harry's never seen his cousin run that fast.

"One down, two to go," he smirked evilly. He then pointed the nozzle at Harry. "I'd run if I were you, kid." Roger pulled the trigger of the nozzle as a cold wave of water sprayed over Harry. It only hit him for a brief moment as he was able to dodge behind the car.

"Run for it, Harry!" Piers called to him. "Go no-" his voice was muffled over the spray of water. Roger had got him right in the mouth.

Still hunched away behind the car, Harry felt something cold trickle by his bare feet, causing him to shiver. He looked down, only to see a river of different hues of chalk trinkle down the driveway and into the gutter. Their pictures must have gotten wet due to the hose. They were now ruined.

A surge of anger and courage filled Harry as he walked back towards the bully from behind the car. Piers was trying to cough out the water that went down the wrong pipe.

"You still here?" Roger asked in mock surprise. "What? Did the little baby not get enough?" He aimed for Harry again, spraying him as hard as he could.

Harry stood his ground. The harsh blast of freezing water felt horrible but he didn't dare run away this time. He was tired of someone antagonizing he and his friends.

"Stop it!" Piers yelled at his older brother. "That really hurt! You're hurting him!" But Roger didn't seem to listen. He was laughing at the two smaller boy's pain.

"Look at you two babies," he howled with laughter. "You afraid of getting wet? What, will you melt or something?"

As huge blast of water cuased Harry to stumble and fall backwards on the hard, wet ground. This only made Roger laugh harder. Harry didn't want to be laughed at anymore, he was tired of being laughed at all the time. Roger, Dudley, Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, Miss McKenna, practically all of his classmates…. If they only knew how much it hurt to be made fun of and mocked. No, he was tired of being embarrassed. Now, all he wanted was Roger to feel was he was feeling….

…Which is what just happened. Suddenly, Roger's shrieks of laughter turned into cries of surprise. He fidgeted around in place as if a hamster was crawling around his clothes. He looked like a victim of a voodoo doll as he bent over and turned this way and that. Harry didn't know whether it was just his wet, blurred glasses or was Roger's clothes actually changing shape.

Harry took off his glasses and wiped them on the only dry patch of clothes that remained. When he placed them back on his nose, he let out a gasp of surprise.

Roger wasn't wearing his shirt, shorts, and trainers anymore. No, now he had on only a coconut bra and a hula skirt. A luau bead necklace and bangles were scattered on his thick arms. Roger too let out a large gasp of surprise as he gazed down at his body. Piers was roaring with laughter.

"I-Uh…what…I…" was all that stuttered out of Roger's mouth. He looked around the block to see if innocent bystander was out for a walk and able to see him. After stuttering for a good minute, he dropped the hose and quickly ran back into the house.

"How did you do that?" was the first thing Piers asked Harry as he calmed down. The whole front of his shirt was wet along with his hair. He looked incruelelly at Harry s if he's never seen him before.

"I-I don't know," Harry admitted truthfully, "I just did."

"But how?" Piers pressed on. Harry cringed slightly,

"I was just mad at him, and then I wanted him to know what it's like to be laughed at. Then it just happened."

"Then it looks like your advice really works then," Piers laughed nervously as he looked upn the ground his brother was standing on only moments before. "Woah, I can't believe it. It was just like magic. It was brilliant It-it was" he stuggled for words.

"It was what?" Harry asked fearfully. What if Piers thought this talent of his was freakish and abnormal? Whould he still want to be his friend?

But then a wide, friendly smile lit up Pier's face, easing away any of Harry's fears. "It was wicked…."

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Author's Note:From now on, I'm posting new chapters on Friday..

I think this chapter came out better than I expected. I still don't have that much time to write. Please point out any problems or questions you have and keep reviewing.

Yes, Piers is going to be Harry's friend for a while in this story. But as you all know, he and Dudley are best buddies. This will unfold eventually but for now, Harry and Piers are friends.

I know that Harry has been treated horribly in the past couple of chapters. Someone actually said that I should forget the canon and just have Sirius come save Harry from the Dursleys so that he doesn't have to suffer anymore. There were times where I considered this, but I'm sticking to the canon for many reasons.

I don't know if there are other variations of "Harry's childhood" stories on this site. I'm trying to keep mine canon while adding a couple of twist now and then. I don't think anyone was expecting Piers to befriend Harry in this story. : )

If you noticed, there were some certain parts of the canon that are reflected in this chapter. For example, how Harry was trying to catch the moon is symbolic to the snitch in the way. Roger is also like a bogart in way. He is frightening to Piers and Harry was able to alter him into a way that was humorous to drive him back.

If you were wondering, the dark-haired handsome man in Harry's dreams is Sirius. He's my favorite character and, in my opinion, the best father-figure for Harry in the series. I'm sure he was looking at the eclipse through the bar windows of his cell thinking about Harry.

I hope you didn't think the idea of Harry trying to catch the moon is too corny. He's five years old.

The idea of a total lunar eclipse came to me a few days ago. I don't know about you, but I live in the Midwest and I went outside to see an actual lunar eclipse. I previously had a bit of writers block as I couldn't find a reasonable way to bring Harry and Piers together.

I've started writing an epilogue for this story. It should be up sometime soon when this story is over (I'm hoping on finishing it by summer).

Also, my Valentine's Day story will be posted sometime within the next week. I know that Valentine's Day had come and gone but does it look like I care?

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Next Chapter: Why don't you come by next week and see what it's about yourself. ( :

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